Nikon Corporation

Jin Nishikawa

Tetsuo Takahashi

Yasuhiro Omura

Douglas C Watson

Bausan Yuan

Yi-Ping Hsin

Hideyuki Hashimoto

There is provided is an optical member-holding apparatus which can hold a plurality of optical members of two different optical systems, even when the optical members exist in a common barrel in a mixed manner, such that the relative positions between the optical members can be easily adjusted; and which holds a mirror in a projection optical system and a mirror in an illumination optical system and includes a barrel unit, an inner ring holding the mirror, a holding member holding the mirror, a support plate attached to the barrel unit, and a holding-supporting mechanism attached to the support plate and adjusting the relative position of the mirror to the mirror.

Optical member-holding apparatus, method for adjusting position of optical member, and exposure apparatus

An illumination optical apparatus which illuminates an illumination objective surface with an exposure light includes: an illumination optical system having a curved mirror and a concave mirror and defining a position substantially conjugate with the illumination objective surface between the curved and concave mirrors; and a second aperture plate separating a space in which the curved mirror is arranged and a space in which the concave mirror is arranged into mutually different vacuum environments or pressure-reduced environments, and having an aperture through which the exposure light passes, the aperture being arranged at a position at which a cross-sectional area of the exposure light is smallest, or in the vicinity of the position. It is possible to decrease the amount of passage of minute particles such as debris in relation to any downstream-side optical system.

Illumination optical apparatus, exposure apparatus, and method for producing device

A precision assembly () for positioning a device () includes a stage () that retains the device (), a dual mover assembly () that moves the stage (), and the device () along a movement axis (), a measurement system () and a control system (). The dual mover assembly () includes a first mover () that moves the stage () along the movement axis () and a second mover () that moves the device () along the movement axis (). The second mover () is rigidly coupled to the first mover () so that movement of the first mover () results in movement of the second mover (). Further, the total output of the dual mover assembly () along the movement axis () is equal to the sum of the movement of the first mover () and the movement of the second mover (). The measurement system () measures a movement position along the movement axis (). The control system () controls the dual mover assembly () utilizing the movement position. The control system () is designed to effectively decouple the control of the first mover () from the control of the second mover (). Further, the control system () includes a quantization feedforward loop.

System for controlling a dual mover assembly for an exposure apparatus

A flange portion is provided to at least a part of the periphery at the center position in the direction of the optical axis of a lens. The lens is held with clamping members and a lens holding metallic part, with the flange portion pressed by the clamping members. The portion where the flange portion is provided, suffers no compressive strain and tensile strain due to the bending of the lens, and is a part of the periphery of a neutral plane, which is the farthest plane from the optical surface of the lens. Therefore, the influence of the clamping force on the flange portion acting on other portions of the lens is reduced to the utmost, and the deformation of the optical surface due to the force acting on the flange portion is reduced to a minimum. As a result, the deterioration of the optical properties of the lens can be suppressed to the utmost.

Method and device for holding optical member, optical device, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

A projection optical system forms an image of an object in a first plane onto a second plane. The projection optical system has an optical element group including at least one refractive member and plural reflective members, and a plurality of lens-barrel units holding the optical element group divided into a plurality of respective groupings. The reflective members are all held by a single lens-barrel unit of the plurality of lens-barrels units.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Jin Nishikawa